Reading speed

[Comiak]

One thing I've noticed since writing is how fast some people seem to read chapters and I am curious to see how people would rate their own reading speed. For some context an audiobook reader reads around 120-150 words per minute but they are reading out loud. Not reading out loud, 200-250 seems to be around average. Some people are reading a 2000 word chapter in about 5 minutes which in context is a full 7' by 11' page in one minute or over 500 words per minute, to put that in perspective the world record for speaking the fastest is less than that.

The next thing I'd like to ask is how your reading comprehension accuracy is? I can tell from personal experience that some people's reading comprehension is abysmal considering they ask questions that was spelled out in the chapter.

For me, since I speak in my mind when reading as if I am reading out loud my reading speed is average, I took a speed test for reading out loud, so I am definitely in the 120-150 range. For my accuracy, since I read every word one by one I'd say my comprehension accuracy is about 99%.

How do you guys feel about reading speed? Personally, I feel that reading faster would be like watching a movie in fast-forward but that's just me, I like to take my time and savor the moment.

 

[SailusGebel]

A different approach for different books.

 

[Mysticant]

It depends on how you read really and what type of books. Stories with surface-level plots are stories which I generally read long chapters (3k+) in like 5 minutes of less, the reason is that I can skip most of the chunky text since I know there is nothing to look out for/comprehend. Serious stories where the author buries stuff inside, perhaps I may invest longer while trying to piece my own conclusions etc. Once you get used to reading English in general, your mind gets very quick in filtering out useless words like "is", "and", "the", "of" etc. They make the story grammatically correct and look nice but they aren't describing anything to me.

Of course, I wouldn't comprehend much of what I read when my reading speed picks up, but I feel the trade-off of skimping 10 chapters better than reading 2 chapters in great detail when the author is only using some flowery language (sometimes even poor English) to tell some simple story that doesn't need much comprehension. More often than not, reading chapters in detail is a self disservice to me.

Plus reading and speaking is two different things, your mind process faster than what your words speak out.

 

[Arkus86]

My reading speed and comprehension depends how focussed and immersed in the story I am.

If my mind is not in the story, my reading speed picks up and comprehension drops.
Also if the author likes to bloat up the word count with superfluous descriptions and infodupms, often with only basic English at best, I tend to skim through the chapters.

 

[Lorelliad]

Depends. Are the words written overcomplicated as all hell? Did the author write a whole essay explaining what a single word means? I sometimes take a few seconds and stop to comprehend everything I read, rather than skimming it. I want to understand what's happening, not just look at the chapter as if it was my test. Funny enough I take this more seriously than my school tests.

 

[Booper150]

It really depends on how invested I am in the plot itself. I can read chapters in less than 3 minutes if they are 4000 words or less, but that really is just how it has always been for me. Speeding through books is the way to go!

My reading comprehension is more or less average. It isn't good nor bad. Sometimes I pick things up no one else sees, and sometimes I don't. It all depends on the depth of the text.

Anyways, it all depends on how your mind absorbs text. Mine is just faster than normal.

 

[K5Rakitan]

It depends on if I am editing or reading for enjoyment.

 

[TotallyHuman]

Depends on the novel.
Light hearted novels I skim, since it's just a way for me to take my mind off of things.
Novels with with actually deep plot I read a bit slower, but I'm not really conscious of how slow or fast, since I immerse myself in the story and don't really pay attention to the existence of the words.
Etc etc

 

[MissPaige36]

One thing I've noticed since writing is how fast some people seem to read chapters and I am curious to see how people would rate their own reading speed. For some context an audiobook reader reads around 120-150 words per minute but they are reading out loud. Not reading out loud, 200-250 seems to be around average. Some people are reading a 2000 word chapter in about 5 minutes which in context is a full 7' by 11' page in one minute or over 500 words per minute, to put that in perspective the world record for speaking the fastest is less than that.

The next thing I'd like to ask is how your reading comprehension accuracy is? I can tell from personal experience that some people's reading comprehension is abysmal considering they ask questions that was spelled out in the chapter.

For me, since I speak in my mind when reading as if I am reading out loud my reading speed is average, I took a speed test for reading out loud, so I am definitely in the 120-150 range. For my accuracy, since I read every word one by one I'd say my comprehension accuracy is about 99%.

How do you guys feel about reading speed? Personally, I feel that reading faster would be like watching a movie in fast-forward but that's just me, I like to take my time and savor the moment.

The more easy going novels take super quick to read but stories that are intricate with language that’s complicated can take longer even if I just skim through it

 

[DarkeReises]

One thing I've noticed since writing is how fast some people seem to read chapters and I am curious to see how people would rate their own reading speed. For some context an audiobook reader reads around 120-150 words per minute but they are reading out loud. Not reading out loud, 200-250 seems to be around average. Some people are reading a 2000 word chapter in about 5 minutes which in context is a full 7' by 11' page in one minute or over 500 words per minute, to put that in perspective the world record for speaking the fastest is less than that.

The next thing I'd like to ask is how your reading comprehension accuracy is? I can tell from personal experience that some people's reading comprehension is abysmal considering they ask questions that was spelled out in the chapter.

For me, since I speak in my mind when reading as if I am reading out loud my reading speed is average, I took a speed test for reading out loud, so I am definitely in the 120-150 range. For my accuracy, since I read every word one by one I'd say my comprehension accuracy is about 99%.

How do you guys feel about reading speed? Personally, I feel that reading faster would be like watching a movie in fast-forward but that's just me, I like to take my time and savor the moment.

I read fast most of the time, even though I also read out in my head, and also visualize everything. But reading the page of a normal novel in a minute is probably my usual speed, so 250-300 words per minute on average. Sometimes i read a lot faster than that, but i have to be in a good mood to do so.
And my reading comprehension is pretty good, if something is in the chapter and not too hidden and not almost immediately relevant (i suck at mysteries most of the time) I'll probably pick up on it. Just don't make me think too much lol

 

[Kilolo]

i think i'm a slow reader, for a chapter that has average 3k words, it took me almost 20 minutes for first time reading, 15 if i re-read it for fun.

The next thing I'd like to ask is how your reading comprehension accuracy is? I can tell from personal experience that some people's reading comprehension is abysmal considering they ask questions that was spelled out in the chapter.

i might missed or misinterpret something, but at least i can see i'm doing good on this part.

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

I think I read a little faster than most humans. One thing I'm not able to do is "skim"; the moment I see text the real world fades into the background. Even at my age I'm still not even sure what it means to skim something in the context of reading, since the concept is so alien to my experience. My reading comprehension is rather good, but sometimes I find myself skipping a paragraph by accident (I blame my mouse wheel).

 

[Okay]

I can read a 10k chapter in about ten minutes or so but that’s only if I like that novel. My reading comprehension is pretty good too. I understand about 90% at least.
But if the author decides to write a whole paragraph on superfluous details, like their clothing, or money schemes (when the author goes really into detail on how the character’s going to earn a lot more then before and modules on how to earn money better), I skip the paragraph entirely.
Why? Because I have no idea what their talking about when they suddenly start talking business schemes and whatnot. There was this novel I read before that had all the things I’d typed above and the main character was named Gwen Song.

 

[Comiak]

you guys all had really good answers and it might help out my writing a little. My book tends to focus more on "mana science" and a lot of people probably aren't too interested in it so they skim that part which can sometimes cover the entire chapter.

I'm sometimes detail light on a lot of things but from what you guys are saying is that there has to be a sort of balance, too much detail and it gets tedious to read, but too little and there isn't enough information to form a clear picture of what's going on.